We are back in Scotland after about a month in Herefordshire, where David was hard at work on the garden again. One area along the side of the house had become impenetrable with undergrowth (I wish I’d taken a “before” picture). Twice before he has cleared it and tried to reseed the grass, but as we haven’t been there to give it any tender loving care, it has failed to grow. And over the last three years the James Grieve apple tree growing here has gradually died, so that had to be removed, together with two huge industrial-sized bags of mistletoe from the Blenheim apple tree. By this point, it looked like this: